Almost half of the UK is registered with the BBC

The BBC has revealed 31 million people are now registered with the broadcaster across its services, almost half of the UK population.

In a speech to launch the BBC Annual Review 2017/18, director general Tony Hall revealed 17 million of those registered with the corporation are signing in each month.

"Data is also key to developing iPlayer," said Hall in his speech. "In the last year, we have been experimenting with how we release content - with box sets of the latest dramas as well as the full back catalogue of big hits like Peaky Blinders and Line of Duty. This contributed to iPlayer’s biggest ever weeks with close to 80 million requests between Christmas and New Year - and our best year ever for the service."

The report also states that 92 per cent of the UK adult population uses BBC services at least once a week.

Internally, 94 per cent of the BBC’s controllable spend this year was focused on content and delivery while six per cent was spent on running the organisation. The BBC said £160 million of annual savings were delivered during the year - taking the cumulative savings to £244 million and a significant step towards the latest £800 million target by 2021/22.